N.H. rally supports Wisconsin protestors

Sunday

An estimated 800 people attended the rally sponsored by Seacoast for Change in protest of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's plan to cut most public employees' collective bargaining rights.

"The United States is not putting up with this garbage anymore," said George Drinkwater, a math teacher at Dover Middle School. "... They don't know what they're messing with. It's huge."

If the bill passes, it would force public employees to pay more for their health care and retirement benefits. Unions would not be able to collect mandatory dues and would be required to conduct annual votes of their members to stay in existence. Employees would be forbidden from collective bargaining except for basic wages and raises of no more than the rate of inflation.

Drinkwater said he feels the situation is similar to the 1971 Timberlane Strike in Plaistow, when the school board rejected proposals for association recognition and refused to negotiate working conditions or grievance procedures.

In response, teachers withheld services and picketed the schools, which resulted in the firing of 94 teachers. The strike paved the way for a New Hampshire collective bargaining law in December of 1975 that gives public employees the right to organize and bargain with employers.

"We all went to jail because we protested," Drinkwater said. "Now they want to do it again ... They can fire you anytime they want, but they have to do it with just cause. It's history repeating itself."

He said he is concerned about the bill in Wisconsin because it could affect decisions made elsewhere. For the past three years, he said, Dover teachers have had no contract.

"Dover is probably listening really hard to Wisconsin," he said.

Anne Spraker, of Newburyport, Mass., is a newly retired teacher and originally was from Wisconsin. She said she came to the rally because she is worried about what would happen to her pension if the proposed plan catches on nationwide.

Already there have been several other states who are presenting similar bills.

Gov. Paul LePage, of Maine, said in his weekly radio address Saturday that similar rallies can be expected in Augusta next week in protest of the retirement proposals in his budget, although he said pension checks would not decrease for next year under his budget proposal.

"Unions set standards for hours, child labor," Spraker said. "... When you take away your ability to negotiate, you have abuses."

Anne McCurry, a teaching assistant at Newmarket High School, agreed.

"The last of the lifeline is unions," she said. "It's the last of humanity ... Not everyone can get a fancy college degree. They just want to work and feed their families. (The bill's) got to stop. It's not a Democrat or Republican thing. It's an American thing. Let's start listening to what (the politicians) are saying and doing and not just voting."

Walker said the bill he put forward is designed to close the state's near-term $137 million deficit. If the bill is not passed, Walker said up to 1,500 people may be laid off by July to achieve the savings necessary to balance the budget, with another 6,000 layoffs by the middle of 2013, along with an equal number on the local level.

A spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Administration said the increased contributions to pensions and health care in the bill would amount to a 6 percent decrease in take-home pay for a state employee with a $50,000 income, the average for state workers. Workers would pay more than 12 percent of their health care premiums, up from 6 percent, while 5.8 percent of their pay would be diverted to finance pensions, up from less than 1 percent for typical workers.

The legislation passed in the Wisconsin state Assembly Friday morning, but was stalled in the state's Senate because its 14 Democratic members have left the state in an effort to block the bill. Under Senate rules, 20 lawmakers must be present to take up a budget bill, and there are only 19 Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate.

"They try to make it about money when it's about union busting and power," said Jerly Biggart, a firefighter from Milwaukee, Wis. who flew out for the Portsmouth rally. "It's so much deeper than what is on the surface. (The people of Wisconsin) will continue to support other union groups to prevent them from being ground zero like in Wisconsin ... It's a typical middle-class person who built this country. I'm tired of politicians trying to say public workers created any of these fiscal problems in this country."

Spraker agreed.

"They have tax cuts for the wealthy and then pick on the public workers for breaking the budget," she said. "They go to the people who take money from their pay check to put it into pension money. The pension money was depleted by people on Wall Street, and then they blame it on public workers."

Doug Bogen, of Barrington, called the Wisconsin legislation "an attack on the American people, working people.

"We need to expose the right-wing corporate agenda, which is to bust unions and take away the rights of all in the name of corporate greed," he added.

He said he came out on behalf of his wife, who is a retired teacher.

The Market Square rally was one of many across the nation on Saturday. Thousands of people rallied in state capitals and major cities across the country in events organized by many different organizations.

"It's very rewarding to see this," Biggart said. "It's inspiring and just really touching to see support from coast to coast. The fact that it's been put together in a week is unbelievable. It shows that people aren't going to stand for it."

Bogen said the rallies show people can speak up and oppose the change.

"They may have more money and power, but we have people power," he said.

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